Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, founded in 1919, is a premier school of international affairs in Washington, D.C.

May 27, 2015—Briefing: "Marriage, Identity, Religion & Marital Stability: Intermarriage of Turkish Citizens in the US" with Mehmet Ali Balkanlioglu.Today’s societies have become more and more multi-cultural and multi-religious than ever. As reflecting the harmonization of cultural and religious differences, today the intermarriage rate has reached its highest level throughout history, especially in the United States. More specifically, according to a Pew Research Center report, about 15% of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity. Looking at all married couples in 2010, regardless of when they married, the share of intermarriages reached an all-time high of 8.4%. Many studies from different disciplines have focused on examining the different dimensions of intermarriage in the US since the twentieth century; however, the intermarriage of Turkish citizens in the US has been neglected as a research domain. Dr. Balkanlioglu’s research on the nature of intermarriage of Turkish citizens in the US is the first of its kind. According to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, 189,791 Turkish citizens live in the US. This talk broadly discussed the circumstances of intermarriage of Turkish citizens concerning family, identity, assimilation, culture, religion, conversion, marital stability and child raising throughout their marriages.